On his last album, Chromakopia, Tyler, The Creator delved into some heavy subjects. From the paranoia inherent to stardom to the complex relationship he has with his hair, Tyler unpacked a lot on his last album — which is why he says he pivoted so hard with his new one, Don’t Tap The Glass.
As he told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, he “just wanted to be silly again,” which is what led to the looser sound of the new album. “Chromakopia was so… I’m not saying it’s the most mature, deep sh*t,” he admitted. “But whether it’s me talking about my relationship with my hair and how that’s affected me, or me almost being a father last year, or the relationship that I have with my father now, just so many things that I decided to dive deep into. After the weight of that got off, I just wanted to be silly again.”
“I just want to be fun and say outrageous shit and say sh*t that… inside jokes that me and my friends laugh at, and just talk big fly sh*t,” he explained. “That was the goal. That was the main 100% goal.”
He also broke down how the various dance music scenes from around the country and throughout history influenced the album’s sound. “I never called it a dance album,” he declared. “It’s just some sh*t that I would love people to dance to because it’s music that I will want to dance my body to. And that’s all type of dance music on there.”
“Bro, if you grew up in the South and you know New Orleans Bounce, ‘Don’t Tap That Glass’ is New Orleans Bounce,” he noted. “‘Don’t You Worry, Baby’, that’s Atlanta bass, that’s Miami bass. But some of these folks, they didn’t grow up within that culture. So, ‘I’ll Take Care of You, that’s a UK jungle record. And some people might be like, ‘You can’t dance to that,’ but that’s dance music.”
You can watch Tyler’s full interview with Zane Lowe above.